Ready Player One

João says:

There are some cinema experiences that will stay in your mind forever.

During my lifetime I had a few, and looking back at them there is something in common with most of them, a name that is always showing up.
For almost 50 years that same name is creating a legacy, a name that everyone recognizes, a name that we associate with magic.

Besides creating these magical worlds, he brought to life terrific stories that won Oscars, showed us the real world like no one else and gave us characters we will not forget like in “Schindler’s list”, “Saving Private Ryan” and “Catch me if you can”
The main focus of his movies as always has been the people, the connections between them and what makes them “human”.

“Ready Player One” is impressive, I could only talk about the special effects, how beautiful it is, the cameos and references that all the nerds like me will be excited about, but that would be too shallow.
There is so much more about this movie, the messages are strong and deep, messages of hope that want to open your eyes.

Its been a while since I was this impressed with Spielberg, don’t get me wrong he doesn’t know how to do a bad movie, but from him, I want more, I want to be amazed and for example “The Post” doesn’t do that.

With Ready player one I was, it is his return to big fantasy, creating worlds and stories no one else could, and to be honest I believe this movie could not have been created by anyone else.

To get the licenses for all these properties you need to be an icon, someone everyone looks up to, and that is something only Steven Spielberg could do.

How many directors have the power and vision to pick such an iconic book and change it?
The changes in my eyes are crucial to making this movie work and flow, in a media that is so different to what you’d experience in a book.

He changes the structure of the hunt, the book went very deep on the nerd culture, Spielberg made it fun and into something almost everyone will recognise.

He had the humility to listen to the concerns of the fans of the book, in the book Art3mis and Parzival relationship is very different and Art3mis’s character is not as developed as in the movie version.
Creating the rebellion aspect in the movie gave Art3mis also a more significant role, a purpose she didn’t have in the book, yes there is no rebellion in the book.

And finally in the book someone dies, that is not the same in the movie, will not go into details, so I don’t spoil anything.

The movie is fantastic and needs to be seen on a cinema screen, if possible an IMAX screen, the pure visuals will blow your mind.

But how he infuses those visuals into a great story is what will make this such an immersive experience that makes you forget that 90% of what you are seeing doesn’t exist.
You start seeing the characters as actors with performances that touch you and make you laugh and care about.
The friendship of Parzival/Wade and Aech/Helen is so heartwarming and it’s hard to believe in real life they’d never met, you believe they honestly see each other as real friends.

The way the easter eggs and cameos of iconic pop culture references are inserted in the movie is so organic and never felt push down your throat. It feels so ‘Spielberg’, sometimes we can’t even explain what it is, but the relationship between our hero and everyone around him, how he falls in love so quickly and innocently and is willing to give the plunge with just hope on his side.

The natural retro look gells aimlessly in the movie and the soundtrack is the cherry on top of the cake.

There are a few things that could be better, characters like Daito and Sho could be a bit more developed to makes us care more for them, but still, they are not the focus of the movie.

I-R0k was my biggest issue, I felt he had so much potential to become much more, we never felt scared by him and also never understood where he was standing on the line, but visually and in the concept, he could have been much more of a key role in the movie.

So “Ready player one” is a revolution, it’s impressive in every form, it’s fun and shows you that in a world full of smoke and mirrors it is the reality that matters the most because… it’s real.

Jasmine says:

Spielberg has brought a brand new perspective to the world.

By using technology to show us all the importance of friendship. I absolutely loved the effects and how everything had a reference to it.

What a great time to bring out this movie, Easter.
As we were all searching for chocolate eggs, Parzival/Wade and his friends were all on their own journey looking for there own egg, which held more fortune than anyone’s expectations.Spielberg had the incredible idea of blending retro and the future seamlessly. I believe he did this to remind us that simplicity is just as valuable as virtual reality.

The best reference of the whole movie for me is probably “the creator that hated his own creation.”
Then basing a whole game on how Stephen King hated his own creation. “The Shining”.

Talking about “The Shining” also leads me to my next point. The effects in this movie were incredible! How did they fit or even designs all these characters? How long did it take?
Just the thought of people drawing all these characters for one movie makes me feel tired.

What I love about that world was that you could be who you want to be.You could be a really quiet person in real life but in the game a very confident character who does what they want when they want. How the creator of the game is letting people be themselves.

I feel like Spielberg was trying to warn us that, our world is slowly starting to turn into a society that will adapt to technology, and become something that we can’t live without.

What I mean is that if we continue how we are then one day, we will all forget living in the real world. Ignore the feeling of interacting with people. We will forget how people live! We will become robots, living in a technical world.

Spielberg is preventing this by showing us what may happen.

The last thing I am going to say out of the million things I love this movie is how much I adore the soundtrack. I love the soundtrack mainly because it expresses my love for antique/old songs.

I love how they also included it as a way to remind us that retro is as important.

2 Comments

[…] So it’s understandable that the plot feels so similar to many of the values that are so present in all his movies and mainly in movies like “ET”, but the visuals, the pacing, and even the casting feels again aligned to his vision. (also check our review of “Ready Player One”) […]

[…] Only Steven Spielberg can make a guy copying a bunch of papers look exciting, but even his talents are sometimes not enough to turn this story into a cinema masterpiece. (Check our “Ready Player One” review here) […]